Shrimp are a favorite delicacy not only for beer lovers, but also for those who are partial to seafood delicacies. They are low-calorie, tasty, have a valuable composition and, when consumed, have a beneficial effect on human health. However, even the healthiest product can be hazardous to health if it is chosen incorrectly. Frozen peeled shrimp are no exception. How to cook and what delicacy to buy so as not to fall into the trap of tricksters will be discussed in this article.
Habitat
Everyone is familiar with the sweet-salty taste of shrimp meat with a sea aroma. But few people know where the product comes from on store shelves. In general, this invertebrate animal of the crustacean order has a considerable range. The future seafood delicacy is caught from the North, Baltic, Black, Mediterranean, Irish seas, as well as on the Atlantic coast of Morocco and Scandinavia.
The color of these individuals varies depending on the type of environment; as a rule, they have the color of a sandy bottom, which helps them camouflage. But the consumer sees red frozen peeled shrimp on the shelves. “How to cook such a product?” - the question immediately arises. But no one wonders why a seafood delicacy with an unnatural color is being sold. The fact is that the manufacturer simplifies the cooking procedure as much as possible and produces already boiled shrimp. Therefore, the question of how long to cook frozen peeled shrimp is wrong. They just need to be defrosted.
Big and small
Sea crustaceans, also called shrimp, are divided into two groups: warm-water and cold-water. Large specimens are caught in warm environments. Prominent representatives are tiger and king prawns. Arctic individuals that live in cold waters are smaller in size than their heat-loving counterparts. Although they do not differ in taste characteristics, the cost of royal and tiger delicacies is 2–3 times more.
Large sea crustaceans reach a length of 30 cm, while the size of cold-water ones averages 4-5 cm.
The popularity of this delicacy is growing, so to meet demand, some countries are starting to artificially grow this product. Aquacultures from China are of the lowest quality. The Chilean artificial delicacy is more acceptable to eat. But due to the fact that crustaceans move little in such conditions and do not receive enough necessary substances, they are not as useful for humans as shrimp caught from the natural environment and frozen, peeled. How to cook and what to prepare from this delicacy are tasks that housewives solve after choosing the right product.
How to defrost shrimp
Seafood requires special treatment at every stage of cooking. To cook sea creatures correctly, you must first defrost them properly.
How to defrost shrimp
- Defrost shrimp in cold water. Fill a bowl with water and add a few ice cubes if possible. Place the crustaceans in the water and keep them there until they thaw completely.
- To defrost crustaceans quickly, you need to place them under running water. Place the bowl of shrimp in the sink and open the water; within 15-20 minutes the product will thaw.
- Do not defrost shrimp in the microwave or using hot water. With sharp heat treatment, the frozen product will lose its beneficial and tasteful qualities. The shrimp meat will be like rubber, and there is no way to revive it.
Excellent purchase
Shrimp in the store can be seen both packaged and by weight. It has always been more profitable to purchase a product unpackaged, but no information about it is available to the buyer: how long it has been stored, what its composition is and where it was imported from. The difference in price is significant; the delicacy sold by weight is half the price of packaged shrimp.
For a simple buyer, the difference between the two types of goods sold will be insignificant. The only thing is that the aesthetic appearance of the dish will be better from a packaged product. The weighed delicacy is more suitable for cocktail dishes. But how to cook frozen, peeled shrimp will be discussed a little later, after studying the composition of the product.
What else can a semi-finished sea delicacy contain besides the main ingredient? It turns out that unscrupulous manufacturers add flavor enhancers, dyes and other unhealthy ingredients to improve the taste of a most likely stale or artificial product. It is important to know that a quality delicacy must consist of three ingredients: shrimp, salt and water.
Ice glaze
After returning home with the right product, the question arises: how to cook frozen, peeled shrimp? The thought immediately comes to mind about long-term heat treatment due to the large amount of ice on them. In general, there is a standard according to which the amount of ice glaze in a product should not exceed 7% of its weight. Otherwise, the manufacturer violates established standards.
You can do an experiment at home. Weigh one frozen shrimp, and then take a control measurement after the ice has completely thawed. It is very rare to find packages that meet the 7% norm. Dry-frozen shrimp are the most profitable. In them, the declared weight without ice glaze corresponds to the real one.
How to choose shrimp
Fresh and frozen shellfish are now available for sale. They can be peeled or still in the shell. When choosing a specific type, take a good look at the product. If with fresh species everything is more or less clear, then with frozen species different questions arise. Nobody wants to give money for a low-quality product. Frozen, unpeeled shrimp are selected paying attention to their integrity and the thickness of the ice crust with which they are covered.
It is undesirable for seafood to be stuck together. The thickness of the ice on them should not be more than 1 mm. If these rules are not followed, they are frozen incorrectly. After cooking and cleaning, only a quarter of the acquired mass will remain. In this case, it is better not to save on cheaper ones, but to purchase large, high-quality frozen shrimp. Chefs advise buying unpeeled varieties; they do not lose their juiciness.
When choosing shellfish, pay attention to the tail. When frozen, it should be tucked under. During the cooking process, the tail curls almost into a ring. If this does not happen, it means that the frozen seafood was not fresh before heat treatment. You should not buy such shrimp, even if at first glance the product is of good quality.
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Cooking tips
Do I need to cook peeled frozen shrimp? Answer: no. And everything is explainable. After all, this product has already been boiled by the manufacturer to facilitate the preparation process.
What actions do frozen, peeled shrimp require? How to cook them? This question disappears. Simply fill the seafood delicacy with water at room temperature and wait until it thaws completely. That's it, the dish is ready. All that remains is to come up with a sauce for it. This is, of course, the easiest way to cook shrimp. In fact, they are fried, baked, added to sauces, pasta, and rice. Holiday appetizers and cocktail salads are incomplete without this delicacy.
By the way, by the color of the water obtained as a result of defrosting the sea delicacy, you can diagnose the quality of the shrimp. If the water is colored, this is a sign of a stale product that has been repeatedly frozen and defrosted.
Basic rules for preparing frozen shrimp for further cooking:
- No cooking.
- Thawing of the product should take place slowly, then the taste of the delicacy will be close to its natural sweetish-salty taste.
- When using a microwave oven, it is important not to overcook the frozen delicacy, otherwise the shrimp meat will be rubbery.
- The shrimp should resemble a donut in shape; if only one straight tail remains from an individual, then it is better not to add it to the dish.
- It is also not recommended to consume invertebrates with black heads, without mustaches and eyes, and artificial red color. These shrimps taste like medicine.
How to cook peeled shrimp frozen for salad?
After thawing the product, place it in a colander to drain the remaining liquid. If the shrimp are small in size, that is, cold-water, there is no need to cut them additionally for salad. To prepare a seafood delicacy dish, you will need cherry tomatoes (300 g), green basil (30 g), black pepper, olive oil, salt, sugar, lemon juice (1 tablespoon) and peeled shrimp (200 g) This salad is convenient the speed of its preparation. You should cut the tomatoes in half, tear the basil and shrimp. In a separate bowl, mix olive oil, salt, sugar (0.5 teaspoon), lemon juice and black pepper. Mix everything and serve.
Another simple dish is fried invertebrates. A kilogram of thawed product must be marinated for 20 minutes with lemon juice and four cloves of garlic. Then place the infused ingredients in a hot frying pan with vegetable oil until completely cooked.
How much and how to cook
Shrimp meat is a protein product. It takes little time to cook it (just think of an egg). You cannot cook them for a long time, otherwise the taste will not be as desired, and the consistency of the shrimp will be like rubber. Some types of these shellfish, offered to customers in retail chains, do not need to be cooked; you can simply pour boiling water over them and wait a few minutes. But this cooking option is not suitable for all varieties.
Frozen shrimp
First, they are washed and thawed. How long to cook depends on the form in which they were frozen. If the shrimp are raw, you need to cook them for about 3 minutes. Cooking time depends on size. Very often you can find frozen cooked varieties in stores. They cook in a couple of minutes. If they were cooked before freezing, it is not necessary to cook them; it is more a matter of preventing intestinal infections. To prepare, you can pour boiling water over them and let sit for a few minutes.
Peeled shrimp
They cook very quickly. Purified species do not need to be boiled at all. Often they are simply poured with boiling water and left for about 4 minutes. After this, you need to try the product for readiness. If the dish is still damp, leave it for a while longer. The main thing is not to overcook the shellfish, although this is difficult to do. Place the finished dish in a colander to drain and serve.
King prawns
This type of seafood does not exist in nature. The name is a well-thought-out marketing ploy, but in fact they differ from the usual Atlantic species only in their large size. The cooking time for unfrozen king prawns is no more than 5 minutes; frozen ones take a little longer - about 10. This is due to the fact that large types take a little longer to cook than usual.
Tiger chrimp
Such mollusks are common in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. They got their name due to the transverse black stripes on the body. Tiger species are cooked for 4-5 minutes after the water boils. Initially, it is advisable to defrost them. The color will indicate readiness - they should turn from gray to bright orange. It is undesirable to digest them, like all other types. This will affect the hardness and taste of the product.
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